Foot measuring appliance



Aug. 22, 1950 Filed Maoh 7, 1947 J. E. MAcKAY FOOT MEASURING APPLIANCE ll I l Il Attorney l Patented Aug. 22, 1950 FOOT MEASURING APPLIANCEJames Edwin Mackay, Street, England, assigner to `C. & J. Clark Limited,Street, England, a

British company Application March 7, 1947, Serial No. '733,092

v In Eire April 2-6, 1945 vSection 1, Public Law 690, August 8, 1946'Patent expires April 216, 1965 2 Claims.

y l This invention relates to an improved foot measuring appliance,primarily intended for use by retailers of footwear which is availablein stock sizes and fittings.

The present invention relates more particularly toa foot measuringappliance of the kind which comprises a base, a heel stop carried by Ysaid base, a second stop slideable relative to the heel stop forcontacting the toe end of the foot andrindicating the required Vfootwearsize on a scale disposed alongside of said base, and an intermediatelydisposed member swivelly adjustable to enable a measuring tape carriedthereby to be passed over the widest part of the foot for gauging thegirth dimension thereof.

The main object of the invention is to provide an improved appliance ofthe kind above specilied which can be used speedily and easily fordetermining the two basic measurements of the foot which, I consider,suiice to enable the re. tailer to decide the size and fitting offootwear required, namely, the overall length of the foot and the girthdimension of the foot at its widest part. The length of the foot isgenerally expressed in terms of a number, well known to the public asthe size of the footwear, and this size can be directly indicated on ascale mounted on the appliance.

The term "tting is generally employed to designate the Width of thefootwear required and to ensure correctly fitting footwear a range ofwidths, for example four different widths, are generally provided foreach size of footwear. The effective width of the foot is gauged inappliances of the kind above specified by measuring the girth of thefoot at its Widest point, viz. on a line which is diagonally disposed inrelation to the longitudinal plane in which the foot normally lies, andthis diagonal line may be considered as passing through the metatarsaljoints of the big toe and the little toe.

A further object of the invention is to provide improved means wherebythe girth of the foot may be readily and accurately determined. Thegauging measurement thus obtained, which is preferably expressed interms of some arbitrary units or standards instead of a direct linearmeasurement, may be compared with a series of corresponding units setout alongside of the size of the footwear directly indicated on thescale by the means provided for gauging the overall length of the foot.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an appliance ofthe character above referred to which is of compact form and adaptedforuse on the existing shop furniture comprising a platform for the foot ofthe person being fitted to rest upon, this platform being frequentlyconstructed ontan integral part of a stool for the shop assistan Onepractical embodiment of the invention is shown, by way of example, inthe accompanying drawings wherein- Figure 1` is a side elevation of theappliance mounted on a known form of platform;A

Figure 2 is a plan View of the appliance looking in the direction ofarrow A, Figure 1, and

Figure 3 is a cross section on line III, III of Figure 2.

In the construction shown the foot of the person being fitted issupported longitudinally on a flat rigid bar i xedly mounted in parallelrelation to and above a rigid substantially rectangular base board 2 soas to leave a gap 3 beneath the bar i, extending practically the fulllength of the base board 2. Lateral extensions are provided at oppositeends of the base board 2 and the bar I is situated adjacent to the sideof the base board 2 on which the lateral extensions are provided, so asto leave adjacent the opposite side of the bar l a flat plate-likeportion. At one end of the bar l is a fixed pillar stop I which engagesand supports the back of the heel, whilst a second stop 5 is mounted forsliding movement over the top face of the bar l. The stop 5 is adaptedto be slid along the bar I into contact with the longest toe and isretained on the bar i by means of end plates 5 which may have inturnedlower edges at l which engage -within channels 8 extending along theopposite longitudinal edges of the bar l. A projecting pin S preventsdetachment of stop 5 in an endwise direction. One of the end plates 6 isprovided with a pointer lil which directly indicates the size of thefootwear required for the length of foot gauged between the stops t and5 on one of a series of interchangeable scale cards Il stationed on saidflat plate-like portion of the base board 2 alongside of thefoot-supporting bar I. The numerals indicating the size of footwear, areomitted from the drawings for clarity, but are to be given in the firstcolumn of the scale card il; the remaining four columns give alongsideof each size numeral a series of numbers, also omitted from the drawingfor clarity, corresponding to those on the foot-width measuring tape asreferred to later.

Intermediately of the fixed heel stop and slidably adjustable toe stopii is a block i2 slidable on the base board E and having a centrallydisposed groove I3 therein within which is received the bar l. The doorI l! of the groove I3 of block I2 is disposed below the bar I and thedepth of the groove I3 is such that the upper face l5 of the block l2does not project up above the top face of the bar l by which the foot issupported. The side walls i6 of the groove I3 are radiused as shown sothat each radiused wall I6 can roll on a side of bar i as the block I2swivels under the bar l to dispose a measuring tape il in theappropriate diagonalor inclined position to embrace the foot at itswidest part, that is, on a line extending through the metatarsal jointsoi the big toe and little toe, as clearly shown in Figure 2. The tapeil? is threaded through the gap 3 above the iioor I4 of the groove I3and extends outwardly and upwardly on opposite sides of the bar lthrough aligned recesses E8 which open into the side walls I 6. One endof the tape li is provided with a loop IS through which the other end ofthe tape may be threaded so as to strap down the footvlightly on to thebar l. rlhe inside ace of the tape Il carries a series ci numerals, notshown, and that numeral which will be seen where the free end of thetape l'l doubles back over the ybar of the loop I9 is sought for in oneof the four columns opposite to the size numeral indicated by pointer 6of the toe step E in the iirst column of the scale card II. A referenceat the head of the column where the tape numeral being sought for isfound designates the tti-ng required. If the toe stop 5 indicates, forexample, that a size 8 shoe is required for the foot being measured,whilst the tape il reveals the numeral 28 which may be found in thethird column of the scale card Il in line with the indicated sizenumeral 8, the reference A for example can be at the head of this 'thirdcolumn and designate the tting of footwear required. The scale card lIis detachably mounted on the base board 2 so as to be inter-changeablewith other similar cards cover ing stoel; footwear sizes and fittingsfor mens, Womens and childrens shoes.

In a transverserecess 2i in the underside of the hase board 2 a pair ofslidable clips 22 are mounted, these clips 22 being slotted at 23 forthe passage therethrough ci clamping screws 24 which permit ofadjustment to the clips 22 to bring the depending l-ugs 25 thereof intocontact with `the opposite side edges of an inclined platform 25 whichconstitutes a known article of furniture for use in shops retailingfootwear, the appliance being thus held against lateral movement.

I claim:

1. A foot measuring appliance comprising a rigid substantiallyrectangular base board having a lateral extension at each end of oneside thereof, a. rigid longitudinal foot-supporting bar Xedly mounted inparallel relation to and above said I base board and adjacent the sidethereof having the lateral extensions, a fixed heel stop at one end ofthe supporting bar, a toe stop slidaole on the supporting bar relativeto the fixed heel stop and directly indicating on one of a series ofinterchangeable scales stationed on the plate-like portion oi the basealongside of the foot-supportnig bar the shoe size required for thelength of foot measured, a swivel block adapted for longitudinal slidingmovement intermediately of the heel and toe stops, said block having acentrally disposed groove within which to receive said foot supportingbar, side walls of the groove of the swivel block being radiused topermit each radiused Wall of the block to roll on the adjacent side ofthe foot-supporting bar for a swivelling action in relation to thefoot-supporting bar, and a measuring tape carried by the slidable swivelblock and threaded under the foot-supporting bar with its free endsengageable to strap over the widest part of the foot resting on thelongitudinal supporting bar.

2. A foot measuring appliance according to claim l, and wherein theslidable block has aligned recesses in the opposite side walls 0I itscentral groove, the aligned recesses serving to guide-the loop of themeasuring tape threaded under the bar which is within the groove in theblock.

JAMES EDWIN MACKAY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Great Britain Jan. 1, 1931

